So how can you grow a community environment on your blog? There are a number of methods you can use but for sure one way to increase traffic to your site is to create ways for your users to contribute their own content to your site.


1. Reply to comments posted
You should reply to as many comments as you can in order to stimulate more conversation.

2. Recognize top commentators
You should know that the main difference between a blog and a website is a that a blog offers the ability for its users to interact with the author and each other with comments. Comments are one of the main reasons why users will return frequently to a blog.
Encourage more discussion from your readers, by displaying their names and number of comments they have made recently.
You can install a plugin like Show Top Commentators in your site to recognize top commentators.
This may also encourage your readers to spam more often, or place homepage links to inappropriate sites so be careful.

3. Make the option for users to post articles on your blog
Articles from your readers are a great way to allow to see what your blog users like to write about and also to give your readers access to knowledge which you may not be able to write about yourself.

4. Give prizes to your blog readers
If you are blogging for profit, and making an income from your visitors, you should give a small part  back to readers in contests, prizes, etc. For example you can reward the reader who commented the most in a month (of course based on the quality of comments not spam).

5. Write about controversial topics
Find topics to write about for which you know your readers may have very different opinions and interesting conversations will start soon.

written by Cristian L.